I was in the neighborhood last summer. I have a sister in Erie. We stayed at the Westfield KOA and then moved to Lake Erie State park. I grew up in Westfield. Just so you know they have a farmer’s market on Saturday where the local Amish lades come to town in their horse drawn carts and sell backed goods. Best giant glazed doughnuts for a $1.00. You are going to be crossing Lake Chautauqua. If you have time there is an interesting place to visit, Chautauqua Institution. Sundays are free. http://ciweb.org/We stayed just down the road from Bath in Camp Bell Campground,8700 NY-415, Campbell, NY 14821, campbellcampground.com, (607) 527-3301. I hope you are going to visit The Corning Museum of Glass, 1 Museum Way, Corning, NY 14830, cmog.org, (607) 937-5371.We also had to visit Ithaca and Cornell University, we have a granddaughter attending and had to see if it was a descant school.We were traveling west so this was the first stop after returning from Canada. Are you going to Canada?Bill

Thanks Bill, good info. I have lots of family in the Ashtabula area in OH. Not sure how much family time there will be, but if we have the time we will look at some of your suggestions.

We are not planning on doing Canada this trip. We originally were thinking of doing the Maritimes this year, but opted to stay in the country and revisit the east coast attractions again as we didn't get to see much on our last trip through.

Sarge your trip looks similar to the one we took last summer. We did it in reverse. Didn't go quite as far south and hit more Canadian cities on the return, but did some of the same areas. We also went to Nova Scotia. After spending a week in Nova Scotia, we traveled through Canada to Sault Set Marie Ontario stopping at Montreal, Quebec City and Ottawa. The Canadian part of the trip included some of the most memorable. Don't know if you have time for that but it's certainly worth a look. As an aside, I did see your new driveway. Wow, that's a lot of concrete.

Gary

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Gary B1st

2005 Pace Arrow 35G2016 Jeep Wrangler

Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.

Ok heare is an add on for the east coast. Last summer I spent some time in New England area. I drove HI way 1 from the New Hampshire state line to the most northern most eastern campground in the US in Eastport. I have been as far “down east” as you can go.I also spent some time in the New Found Lake area of New Hampshire. It was a good base camp for exploring the White Mountain area.Hearer are some of the campgrounds I used. Wild Duck Campground, 39 Dunstan Landing Rd, Scarborough, ME 04074 wildduckcampground.com ,(207) 883-4432, Great location just south of Portland and not far from Old Orchard Beach resort area.Don’t forget to go to Freeport Maine, home of LL Bean and is a huge outlet store area. Look at the outlet shops around Kittery Main on the state line. When in the area check out When Pigs Fly bakery. https://www.sendbread.com/They have a restaurant /bakery on the north end of Kittery. they allso have a bakrey in Free Port.This is the NH. camp ground.Newfound RV Park, 792 Mayhew Turnpike, Bristol, NH 03222 newfoundrvpark.com ,(603) 744-3344If you don't have reservations in the moody Beach Wells Beach area you won't get in, make reservations today.Moody Beach RV Campground, 266 Post Rd, Wells, ME 04090, rvonthego.com , (207) 646-4586 Now going north from Portland we went to Arcadia National Park and stayed a little south at a nice rustic place on the south side of Ellsworth ME. You can try to get in to one of the RV parks near Bar Harbor but they were full when I was there. Forest Ridge Campground, 40 Flockamoosen Way, Ellsworth, ME 04605 , forestridgecampground.com , (855) 299-6969 Then went to the most Northern and Eastern campground in the US.Seaview Campground & Cottages, 16 Norwood Rd, Eastport, ME 04631, eastportmaine.com , (207) 853-4471From there we drove the toad to, Roosevelt Campobello International Park, Welshpool, NB E5E 1A4, Canada , fdr.net , +1 506-752-2922 Be shure you have your Passports. Had a good day touring the Roosevelts home and the island.Bill

Bill,I am not sold on staying in Bath, NY but Westfield and Chautauqua are not east enough for our next stop - visiting Cooperstown. I checked out Camp Bell's web site and it looked nice...I just wish I could find a park with pavement or at least gravel in that area. I loathe parking on grass...your Eastern bugs eat me up something fierce.

No stops in Canada this adventure....we have too many firearms on board.

You will have a hard time finding camp groundes like we have in the west. "I loathe parking on grass...your Eastern bugs eat me up something fierce." What bugs? They don't have fier ants or chiggers. I didn't see maney mosquitos. I hope you take the time to visit The Corning Glass Museam it is amazing.Just a stray thought, Camp Bell had (when I was there) cheap propane compared to local prices.Are you going to Boston after Cooperstown? If so I can tell you how to gett a free touer.Bill

I have an extensive background in IT and am working on doing a better trip log. Because I am basically lazy I only have compiled a photo log of our trip last year. You are welcome to check it out at www.srfox.net My plans are to do a better job this year.

April 1st we hit the road to start the 2016 adventure to the eastern US. We didn't go far for the first leg of the trip, just going from Fallbrook to Huntington Beach, about 80 miles. We stayed in a beach campsite that we have not been in before, Sunset Vista campground (and I use that term loosely). This spot was convenient for several family and friend events we wanted to attend before heading out of state.

Sunset Vista is quite literally a parking lot. The city of Huntington Beach, in order to create some off season revenue have added hookups (water and electric) to an existing parking lot. The up side of this campground is that you are mere steps from the sand and the pacific ocean. The down side is that you are also within steps from a major coastal roadway in back of the camping area, Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1). The campsites are all asphalt, and each one is 6 parking spaces in size. That is that the sites are made up of three car size parking spaces wide, and two spaces deep. In reality, that is a fairly good size RV space, room for your RV, tow car,and plenty of outside sitting room. The electrical pedestal is 50 amp, and water faucets on a raised concrete pad to separate the sites. There is a dump station on site.

The sites cost $70 per night, and reservations are made on line on the cities web site. While pricey, it is not out of line for most Ca beach campgrounds since Gov Jerry Brown doubled the cost of most state campgrounds during the recession. There are plenty of shops and restaurants nearby in walking distance, and a walk/bike trail also right in front of the beach sand. The Huntington Beach pier is about a 5 minute walk down the bike path. Handicapped restroom and shower facilities are nearby, but are also public accessible. Wifi is available if you have a hot spot or air card, but the campground has no Wifi of it's own. There are two rows of sites. The front row is angled parking for rigs 30' and below, the second row is pull through for rigs up to 40', but I did see a few rigs that pushed that limit by a few feet.

One big downside for this location is the noise from PCH, and a nearby high rise construction project that is across PCH. Also because this site fronts a public beach, the weekends are extremely busy with lots of people and walkers and bikers packing up the bike path. The beach also has several fire pits that usually fill up at night, and even though there is a 10 PM closing time on the beach, that time limit is stretched a bit as well.

The cost and crowds didn't discourage the campers though, as the park was near capacity every night. However, the sunny 70 degree days and mild nights helped some too. Even though this park served our needs nicely, I would hesitate to come back due to the noise and crowds. It is also important to say that this is only a campground in the off season. During the summer months, it goes back to being a regular parking lot for beach goers. I guess it is a matter of economics. They charge the RV'ers $70 a day to take up 6 of the car parking spots a day. In the busy summer months, those 6 spots bring a minimum of $90 a day, and possibly 2 or 3 times that if the same spots are sold numerous times a day.

Diane is also posting her blog tonight as well.

Next we move on to Morro Bay and another beach campground. However, I expect the next one to not be quite as noisy as this one.

During the summer months, it goes back to being a regular parking lot for beach goers. I guess it is a matter of economics. They charge the RV'ers $70 a day to take up 6 of the car parking spots a day. In the busy summer months, those 6 spots bring a minimum of $90 a day, and possibly 2 or 3 times that if the same spots are sold numerous times a day.

If they were smart, the city could leave the electric power on during the summer and let electric cars recharge while their owners are enjoying the beach. For a slight surcharge, of course.

We pulled out of Huntington Beach and headed up the 101 towards Morro Bay. LA traffic sucked, as usual. Once we got through the Valley it thinned out and travel was much more enjoyable. Like last year we stopped for fuel at “Silvas Oil Company” in Ventura. Although we didn't need much fuel, like 24 gallons, I know that the choices are slim in this part of the state for fueling large vehicles. Silvas had a line of cars waiting to fill at the 2 or 3 pumps they have for passenger cars, but the 8 or so large vehicle lanes with diesel were about empty. I was pleasantly surprised to see diesel was the lowest priced fuel at $2.17 a gallon. For about anywhere in Ca that is outstanding. 86 octane was running about $2.40 a gallon.

I fooled around with my VMSpc a bit, as I am still trying to get my new Windows 10 tablet to talk consistently to the JIB that sends the information to the tablet via WiFi. Well, no luck so it will have to wait until I get to Morro Bay and can spend some time on it.

We pulled into Morro Bay looking forward to a little peace and quiet after our rather noisy stay in Huntington Beach. What a difference 245 miles can make! We stayed in Morro Bay during our California coastal adventure last year, but we were at a different RV park. Last year we were at Morro Strand RV park, and this time we stayed in Morro Strand State Beach campground. A big difference in these two parks as well.

On the up side, about a year ago the state added many new full hook up concrete RV sites. The campground flier indicates that the full hook up sites are limited to 40' or less in length. I do think that you could fit a 40'+ rig though, as there is 8-10' of space in back of the rig after the concrete pad stops. They are back in and are wide enough for the rig and a tow vehicle. We turned the Jeep and parked in front of the rig, thus we were able to use the concrete parking pad for daily use. The back portion of the parking area is dirt and is where the picnic table sits. We put down our rug to cut down the dirt and sand tracked into the rig, and it did rain a bit while we were here. The sites have 50 amp, and the water pressure is remarkable, especially for a beach location (my on board regulator was easily pegged at 60 psi). The full hook up sites are $50 a night. There are many dry camp spots available as well at $35 a night. The beach is a short walk down a path through some areas that are being regrown with native plants. The cool part is that the sound of the surf is clearly present, and provides a calm background noise to soothe you to sleep each night. And even though there are houses at the top of the bluff in back of the campground, the area is incredibly quiet night and day. Unfortunately dogs are not allowed on any of the beach areas in this State Park, so Fido needs to stay in the campground. Our Verizon air card worked really well here, but no park WiFi is available.

One really surprising point being that this is a state park is the absence of any handicapped facilities. The campsites themselves are easily negotiable with flat smooth surfaces and small rolled curbs, but that is about it. There are two bathroom facilities, one at each end of the park, but neither is handicapped accessible. In spite of a crude asphalt ramp, the doors into restrooms, and on the stalls themselves are not ADA compliant. There are also no shower facilities here. The campground flier states that fact, but indicates that by showing your receipt for t this campground, you can drive 6 miles south to Morro Bay state park and use the showers there. Not very convenient. But if you don't need showers, or Handicapped facilities, I can highly recommend this campground.

BTW, Diane's blog has been updated if you are following hers as well. And an edit I forgot in my review above. Most of the the dry camp spots have a length limit of 24' for your RV. There are only 2 dry camp spots that will accommodate up to a 40' rig.

Sarge, it looks like you'll be on the I-80 for part of your trip. Have you identified any RV parks or campgrounds between Fenley and Wells. Fenly is about 30-40 miles East of Reno. Wells is maybe another 275 miles. We plan on taking US 93 from Wells to Twin Falls, ID. We prefer State and National campgrounds to RV Parks and have identified two potentials, Humboldt State Wildlife Management area and South Fork State Recreation Area. Any info on those or others you know of.

Gary

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Gary B1st

2005 Pace Arrow 35G2016 Jeep Wrangler

Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.

Sarge, it looks like you'll be on the I-80 for part of your trip. Have you identified any RV parks or campgrounds between Fenley and Wells. Fenly is about 30-40 miles East of Reno. Wells is maybe another 275 miles. We plan on taking US 93 from Wells to Twin Falls, ID. We prefer State and National campgrounds to RV Parks and have identified two potentials, Humboldt State Wildlife Management area and South Fork State Recreation Area. Any info on those or others you know of.

Gary

Gary - We are stopping in Sparks, Nevada (Reno area) and staying for a few nights at the Sparks Marina RV Park. Then we have an overnight scheduled at Iron Horse RV Park in Elko, NV. We have overnighted at Iron Horse in the past and it worked out perfect for us...no need to disconnect the tow. There isn't much in that area so we don't plan to stay for more than one night. From there we head to Salt Lake City. I agree that State Parks and National Parks are the way to go but I am not familiar with the two parks you mentioned. Mrs. Sarge (Diane)